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In his new book, “Not Taco Bell Material,” Carolla documents the time he spent as a carpenter before he met Jimmy Kimmel at an LA radio station. Photo: Getty Images

From “The Man Show” to “Crank Yankers” to his record-setting podcast, Adam Carolla has been an outspoken purveyor of he-man entertainment for almost two decades. His new book, “Not Taco Bell Material,” offers up tales not of Hollywood, but the far-less-fabulous suburb North Hollywood, where Carolla grew up impoverished, both financially and emotionally.

Before he met Jimmy Kimmel while working at an LA radio station and hosted the world’s most popular podcast — “The Adam Carolla Show” passed more than 60 million downloads last year — Carolla, 48, worked construction, coached boxing, taught at traffic school and cleaned carpets. He spoke to The Post about Tom Cruise’s cupcakes, funny women and why his parents never saw him on TV.

So Tom Cruise came to Jimmy Kimmel’s house to watch football when you were there. He brought cupcakes and his mom. Did anything about him seem like a normal guy?

He comes across as a guy who’s battling to be normal, like he’s from another planet, and he’s studying guys and saying, “What would a guy do in this situation?” Then he mimics the behavior of an American male in front of other American males. I don’t think he’s a bad guy, but he comes across as uncomfortable in his own skin.

Your stories about Kimmel make him seem pretty aggressive. He actually fought one of his writers because the guy wouldn’t take a lap dance at his own bachelor party?

We tried to hold the guy down, in a rough-housing way. He wasn’t throwing punches. But Jimmy is that way. When we were shooting “The Man Show,” if some drunk guy in the audience yelled something out, Jimmy would be like, “C’mon, we’re trying to tape.” But if that guy yelled out again, Jimmy would head out to the audience looking for him.

Is Jimmy a good fighter?

No. But that doesn’t stop him.

While working construction in LA, you once had to talk down a guy with a gun. What went through your mind?

If you don’t have that much to lose, you don’t really worry about that. Now that I have a nice house and some cars and a family, the notion of being in a situation like that is horrifying. But if you’re heading downtown to get some free government cheese, then going back to watch your black-and-white TV, and you’re an alcoholic, you don’t wanna get shot, but it’s almost a lateral move.

Is your relationship with your mom really as bad as you say?

I don’t have anything against my mom, but my family has no emotional connection to each other. Nobody hangs out, barbecues, goes to Pee-Wee [football] games. They’re not bad people, they’re just broken people.

I play with my kids [six-year-old twins Natalia and Santino] in the pool, I hug them, I dance with them. That’s not how my family is. I had two shows on basic cable for years, and my mom, at a birthday dinner, said to everyone at the table, “Can anyone give me one good reason why I should get cable?” She wasn’t trying to be a bad parent. She meant it.

The lesson you learned from a sexual harassment seminar was “Don’t hire chicks.” Do you hate working with women?

No. But they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, “Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.”

The “are women funny” debate has grown very contentious. You’re not worried about reactions to this?

I don’t care. When you’re picking a basketball team, you’ll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you’re playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there’s Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin — super-funny chicks. But if you’re playing the odds? No.

If Joy Behar or Sherri Shepherd was a dude, they’d be off TV. They’re not funny enough for dudes. What if Roseanne Barr was a dude? Think we’d know who she was? Honestly.